Why Not?
by kamywho
Summary: When Shane asked Reed about marriage, he never would have guessed what the young artist's reaction would be.
1. Popping The Question

**A/N: My first Rane story! (: I was watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off the other day and the scene where they're at the trade centre sort of gave me the idea of this. It's just a one-shot for now, because I'm not sure whether or not I want to continue; I have some ideas for it though. **

**I don't own Reed Van Kamp or Shane Anderson. They belong to the wonderful CP Coulter. Go read Dalton if you haven't already, because it's amazing. I don't own Ferris Bueller's Day Off, either. I wish I did though. **

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><p>It was nearly ten-thirty on a Friday night after a long day; Shane Anderson and Reed Van Kamp were already curled up in bed ready to go to sleep.<br>Well, Shane was; Reed was busy with a sketchbook in his lap, trying to finish up the designs that needed to be ready by next Monday. The couple moved in together in their small New York flat in early August. Reed was working for his mother and Shane had gotten a gig as a background dancer in an off-Broadway show. Instead of boarding at Julliard, Reed asked Shane if he'd wanted to move in together. Shane, being Shane, agreed without a second thought.

Shane's head was currently resting on Reed's shoulder, and his eyes were focused on the detailed pencil strokes he was making. His mind was on the gay marriage law that had just been passed a couple days ago. Actually, it was the only thing that had been on his mind for the past few days.

"Hey Reed?" Shane gently nudged the artist's arm.

"Mhm?" he answered absently, still focused on the sketch in front of him.

"Do you wanna get married?" Shane asked casually, his eyes still on the pencil in Reed's hand. He noticed Reed falter in the middle of darkening a curve on the paper.

Reed just sighed, and continued drawing. "Sure."

"I mean, now. Well, not now because it's like 11 o'clock at night. And we're in our pyjamas. But maybe this year or something?" he offered, looking up through his curls only to find that his boyfriend's gaze was still directed at the pad in front of him.

Reed scoffed, "I'm not getting married this year," and erased some shading, only to re-do it.

Shane wrapped his arms around Reed's free arm and leaned into him some more. "Why not?"

Reed moved flipped the page to the next design and sighed. "What do you mean, why not? Think about it."

Shane poked Reed's side as he was listing off reasons. "We wouldn't need to buy a house or anything, because we have the apartment. And we both have good jobs. And we both love each other," he turned on his side to completely curl into his boyfriend. "Give me one reason why not, after all the law was passed a few days ago."

Reed only sighed and moved to place his sketchbook on the bedside table and flicked off the lap. The lamp on Shane's side now only lighted the room. The two boys tangled their legs together and Reed rest his head on top of Shane's.

"What about my mom and dad? I think…I think that's a good enough reason," he said so quietly that Shane barely caught it.

Shane didn't know what Reed meant by that, because both of them had come out to their families several months ago. However, whatever Reed did mean by it, it was clearly upsetting him. The thought of marriage immediately escaped Shane's mind; right now he was only focused on finding out what his parents had to do with Reed's thoughts on getting married. He tilted his head up, once again only to find that Reed wasn't meeting his gaze.

"There's nothing much to say. They were married, and they hated each other. They got a divorce. End of story," the smaller boy replied in a monotone. Shane slowly processed what Reed had said in his mind. After a few moments, it dawned on him.

_ No, _Shane thought. _Why would Reed even assume that? _ "Are you worried that," it almost hurt the dancer to say it aloud. "That if and when we do get married, we'll end up hating each other and get a divorce?"

Reed only brought his lips to a straight line. Shane, however, noticed how glassy his boyfriend's eyes were becoming. Quickly, he pulled Reed into his arms. Normally, when Reed was upset about something he would refuse any kind of physical contact. This time, however, Reed didn't struggle against Shane; instead, he sort of fell into him as if he had no bones. Shane wasn't sure whether this was good or bad. He only knew Reed was crying because of the dampness he felt on his shirt. He didn't

After what felt like an eternity, Reed sniffled and nodded his answer. Shane could only bring a hand to rake through Reed's hair, because he was still deciding what to say as means of comfort.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Shane asked in the softest voice he could manage.

"No," Reed hiccoughed.

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><p><strong>It ends it a weird place, I know. But like I said, I'm still thinking about how I want to go about doing this. <strong>

**Speaking of FBDO, I've always wanted a love like Ferris and Sloane's. But alas, you can't always get what you want XD**


	2. Brotherly Advice

**A/N: Here's chapter two! Strangely enough, at first I wrote the first chapter to look like this one. Just Shane and Blaine talking about how Shane wanted to marry Reed. But I recycled it (: **

**Disclaimer's in the first chapter. **

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><p>The next morning, Shane woke up and found that at some point last night Reed had managed to rest his head in Shane's lap. He smiled at this, but then quickly frowned when the memory of that night came to mind.<p>

_Blaine. _Shane needed to talk to Blaine about this. He reached over for his phone on the side table, careful not to wake the sleeping form in his lap and quickly texted his brother.

**Are you free this morning? I need to talk to you about something. It's important. –S. **

He waited patiently for Blaine's reply. In the meantime, he gently played with Reed's curls and tried to figure out a way to talk to Reed about last night. He felt the bed vibrate and read Blaine's reply.

**Sure. I'll meet you in half an hour. –B. **

Shane carefully lifted Reed's head off of his lap, only to have one of Reed's hands grip onto Shane's pants. Shane sighed; this was not going to be as easy as he thought. Slowly, he pried Reed's hand off of his sweatpants and put his own hand under the smaller boy's head. Then, he moved him so that his head was resting on a pillow before slipping his hand away. Reed stirred.

"Hmm?" he mumbled, his eyes half open.

"Shh," Shane shushed. "I'll be out with Blaine for a bit. Go back to sleep," he whispered. The blonde only nodded and closed his eyes again. Shane quietly went to the bathroom to shower, change and get ready to meet Blaine.

Before Shane left, he wrote a note and stuck it on top of Reed's cellphone. The boy probably wouldn't remember Shane moving him to a better sleeping position. It read:

**Good morning, love! I just went out for coffee with Blaine. See you later? (:  
>-Shane. <strong>

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><p>The two brothers met in a quaint little coffee shop Blaine liked because of all the books that shelved the walls.<p>

"Hey Shane, what was so important?" Blaine asked as Shane took a seat across from him.

"It's about Reed," Shane replied as if that explained everything.

"I see," Blaine started. "Listen, I want to be that supportive, helpful brother right now. But don't you think you'd get more help from Kurt? They're best friends, after all."

"No!" Shane exclaimed, a little too loud. A couple people turned to see if anything was wrong. Shane winced and lowered his voice. "I can't. And you can't tell Kurt, either. Or else I'll have to maim you or something. And I really don't want to do that."

Blaine nodded slowly, still confused. "Okay, I won't tell Kurt, calm down. Just tell me what's so important. Did you and Reed have a fight or something?"

"Not exactly…" Shane said, looking down at the table. "I sort of asked him if he wanted to get married. " he started playing with the hem of his shirt.

Blaine heard all of this is the middle of drinking coffee. He started coughing. "What? You asked him if he wanted to get married? To you?"

Shane threw one of the napkins at his brother's face. "No, actually I asked him if he wanted to marry the guy next door," Blaine frowned at Shane's sarcasm. "Okay, fine. Yes. I asked Reed if he wanted to get married to me."

"And what did he say?" Blaine asked, propping his elbow up on the table.

"He basically said no. Except, he didn't directly say 'no.' He said he didn't want to get married because of his parents divorce. Did you know it still bothered him? I never knew." Shane said in one breath.

Blaine shrugged. "I don't know, I just know it happened really suddenly and that Reed was really young when it happened," he thought for a second.

"Why do you think he never mentioned it?" Shane stirred his coffee. He couldn't sit still and his hands needed to do something.

"Did you ever ask him about it?" Blaine asked.

"He never brought it up," Shane defended.

"I really don't know," Blaine sighed. "But really, I think you should ask Kur-"

"I'm not going to ask Kurt," Shane cut him off.

"I honestly don't understand why you can't just call Kurt," Blaine drifted off.

"You don't understand, do you?" Shane raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, no." Blaine deadpanned. "Hence, me saying, 'I don't understand why you can't call Kurt Hummel, Reed van Kamp's best friend.'" Blaine shot back.

"This is about _marrying _Reed. And if I tell Kurt, then he'll get all excited, then he'll tell Reed, Reed will ask Kurt who told him that, Kurt will say me and then Reed will get upset with _me_ because he already told me last night that he didn't want to talk about any of this," Shane said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Blaine was silent, trying to absorb everything his brother had just said. It made sense to him, actually, as to why Shane couldn't go to Kurt. His fashion-savvy boyfriend _could _get a little gossip-y. And this would no doubt reach Reed at one point. And Reed would most likely get upset with Shane, and that wasn't an option right now. "Why don't you just give it a day or so? Give Reed a little 'breathing time'. He'll come around; he always does."

Shane twice slowly, "You're right, thanks." He said, his mood slightly better than it was this morning.

Blaine's phone beeped. "Hey, I got to go. We'll talk later, alright?" he said, already standing up. Shane looked at the time, and it was nearing eleven thirty.

"Okay. I should go too, check on Reed and you know." Shane nodded, also getting up from the seat. Blaine patted his brother's arm before finally exiting the coffee shop. Shane decided to call Reed and see if he was awake. He probably was, and thought it would be nice to bring him a coffee or something. He pressed '2' for Reed's speed dial.

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><p>Reed woke up to find that Shane's side of the bed was cold and empty. He sighed, wondering if he was upset with him because of last night. It's not that he was ashamed of his parents' divorce or anything; he was just tired of being the weak one. Or, at least, he thought that Shane thought that he was being weak. He heard his phone vibrate on his side drawer, and smiled when he saw the note with Shane's messy scrawl. However, when he saw Shane's name flash on his cellphone's screen he bit his lip with worry.<p>

_He left a note at least, _Reed thought. _So he can't be upset. He wouldn't have left it if he were,_ He reasoned with himself before pressing the green button. "Hey," he said as he sat up to lean against the headboard.

"Morning, love. Did you just wake up?" Shane asked.

Reed nodded, but then quickly remembered Shane couldn't see him. "Mhmm," he replied, debating whether or not to get up yet. "I saw your note."

"Oh, that's good. Because I didn't want you to worry or anything, because I didn't leave or anything. Well, I did; but I meant that I didn't leave forever. Because I'm still here," he babbled.

"Oh," Reed said, not sure how to take what he just heard. Why was it necessary for Shane to explain that he wasn't leaving forever? He started feeling upset again; he didn't like it.

"Do you want me to grab you anything? Like coffee or a croissant or something?" Shane asked, trying to cover for himself.

"No, I'm okay. Thanks," Reed mumbled, a failed attempt to sound cheerful. "I think I might call Kurt. I haven't seen him in a while."

Shane was about to answer saying that they just had dinner with Kurt and Blaine this past Tuesday, but decided against it. Maybe Blaine was right, Reed just needed some time. "Okay. I'll see you later?" he asked, still hoping he could fix this whole mishap.

"Of course. Later," Reed confirmed, before finally hopping off the bed and entering the bathroom. He ended the call and sent a quick text to Kurt before getting into the shower.

**Hey can I come over later? –R. **

Once Reed was changed and ready to go, he read Kurt's reply:

**Sure, but aren't Saturdays your days with Shane? He won't mind, will he? –K. **

For what felt like the hundredth time that morning, Reed sighed and thought of ways he could explain the whole thing to his fashion-savvy friend in a single text. He then decided he'd better do it in person.

**No, he won't. –R. **

_Déjà vu, _Reed thought, remembering last night.

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><p><strong>There it is! It's a little bit longer than the first one, but at least now I have a decent storyline in my head. <strong>

**Reviews would be quite lovely :3 **


	3. Nostalgia

**AN: I'm extremely sorry for the delay! I've been sort of busy traveling and unpacking and whatnot. I know I said on Tumblr that I'd have this up by yesterday, and I'm sorry about that too. I sort of hit a small writer's block. This is my first time writing Reed and Kurt together, so I hope I got decent characterization for Kurt. So without further ado, here's the third chapter (: **

**Again, I own nothing. I just like to play around with other peoples' characters.  
><strong>

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><p><strong>No, he won't. -R. <strong>

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Were Reed and Shane in the middle of a fight? After all, Blaine did leave earlier to get coffee with his brother; it wasn't planned or anything, Shane had randomly texted Blaine at eight o'clock that morning. It was unusual, Kurt thought.

He decided to text Blaine to see if he knew anything.

**How was coffee with Shane? -K. **

His reply was almost instant:

**It was fine. Shane just wanted to catch up. Have you spoken to Reed? -B. **

Kurt frowned. Why would Blaine ask that? He decided to shrug it off.

**He's actually coming over. -K.**

**That's nice. I'm actually on my way to a meeting with Greg. I'll see you this afternoon? -B. **

Greg was the manager of a small restaurant that Blaine occasionally performed at. Aside from majoring at English at NYU, Blaine made a living by singing at various cafes and restaurants. Greg, however, had Blaine perform at least 4 nights a week.

**Sure. See you. -K. **

Kurt was about to do some random tidying up in him and Blaine's bedroom, before he saw his reflection in the hallway mirror. Apparently, Reed's text had interrupted his morning hair routine; leaving it volume-less and flat. Not amused, he made a beeline for his vanity to fix his hair before Reed came over.

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><p>Reed's cab was just pulling up to Kurt and Blaine's apartment when his text to Kurt went through.<p>

**On my way up. -R. **

Kurt had just sprayed his final spray of hairspray when his cellphone buzzed with Reed's text. He quickly ran to the door to unlock it, before going back to the bedroom to put away his hair products.

**Door's open. -K. **

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><p>Minutes later, Kurt heard the door open, close and lock before Reed's voice called out, "Kurt? Where are you?"<p>

"Right here," He answered, walking out of the bedroom to greet his best friend. He noticed Reed holding something behind his back. "What'cha got there?" trying to peer over the smaller boy's back.

"Hmm?" Reed asked, feigning innocence. "Oh, these?" he pulled out two platinum credit cards and started fanning himself with them before walking closer to Kurt. He started circling him, trying not the stumble over, fanning the cards in front of the taller boy's face. "Just something I thought we could use today."

"You want to go shopping?" Kurt asked suspiciously with an arched eyebrow.

"No, I actually have a whole set of these things. They make for a nifty fan when the weather's warm. I was thinking we could go to the park and tan." Reed deadpanned sarcastically. "Of course I want to go shopping. Please?" he pulled a face that resembled a puppy.

A smile tugged on Kurt's lips before he took one credit card out of Reed's outstretched hand. "I guess it wouldn't hurt. To let the nostalgia of this act sink in." he winked, remembering their New Year's trip in junior year of high school.

Reed grinned, pulling Kurt through the apartment door, barely giving him enough time to grab his phone, keys and a coat.

Four hours, twenty-three shopping bags and one coffee run later Reed and Kurt were almost done with their shopping escapade.

Reed was trying on a pair of pants and Kurt was waiting in the dressing room hallway for the small boy to show him the garment.

"Hey Kurt?" Reed called out.

"Hmmm?" Kurt answered, taking a sip from his coffee.

"Could you—ow!" Reed yelped after the sound of a zipper zipping. "Could you come in here for a sec? I'm having some trouble."

Kurt only laughed and knocked on the door. "Open up, young grasshopper." Reed quickly unlocked the door to let his friend in. One hand was caught in the already tight pants. Kurt laughed. "Reed, maybe you should've unzipped _all_ of the zippers before putting the pants on."

"But the others looked unnecessary!" Reed tried to reason. Kurt only shook his head and proceeded to unzip all four zippers. He laughed again, feeling the nostalgia from high school. "There," he said before sitting down on the dressing stall bench. "Now try."

Reed slowly shimmied into the pants, successfully putting them on. "Thanks, it was much easier," he said.

"Are you and Shane in the middle of a fight?" Kurt suddenly asked, nonchalant.

Reed blushed slightly and looked down. "W-what? No, not at all," he peeked a look at Kurt; who looked doubtful and wore his 'Bitch, please' face. "Not...exactly. We had a...discussion?" Reed leaned against the wall.

"What kind of discussion?" Kurt asked. He wasn't going to beat around the bush.

"Hekindofaskedmetomarryhim," Reed mumbled.

"He what?" Kurt raised his eyebrow.

"He, um. Shane sort of asked me to marry him," Reed sighed.

"He what? Shane Anderson asked for your hand in marriage?" Kurt exclaimed, half with excitement half in shock.

"Shhh!" Reed ran over and clamped his hand over Kurt's mouth. "Do you want to say it louder? I don't think Brooklyn quite heard you," he whisper-yelled. Kurt raised his hands in surrender, causing Reed to take his hand off of his mouth.

"I… I don't know what to say. What did you answer him?" Kurt asked, still in shock.

"I said no," Reed replied timidly.

"You said—! Reed shot Kurt a look. He brought his voice down to a whisper. "You said 'no'?"

Reed shook his head quickly and sighed. "I didn't exactly say 'no'. I didn't exactly say 'yes' either. Just…can we talk about this somewhere other than the dressing room of Bergdorf?" he asked with hopeful eyes.

Kurt stood up from the bench. "Fine. We'll pay for our last purchases, then we'll grab some take-out, okay?" Reed nodded as Kurt walked out of the stall to give his friend some privacy.

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><p>Reed suggested that he have his mom's driver drop off their respective shopping bags to their apartments, just so they wouldn't have to lug them around.<p>

They chose a little Japanese restaurant down the street. Once they had their orders and got to the apartment, Kurt cut to the chase. Reed was perched on one edge of the couch, his back leaning against the armrest; Kurt was on the opposite side in the same position.

"So why don't you explain to me this whole marriage thing?"

Reed bit the inside of his cheek. Kurt squinted his eyes. Reed gave in. "Okay. So last night he basically asked me if I wanted to get married this year or something. Because the law was passed and whatnot. And I said I wouldn't get married this year because, and let's be real for a second here, we're still in _university_ for crying out loud. You with me?" Kurt just nodded.

"Go on," he encouraged as he mixed together his soy sauce.

"And then I brought up my parents, and how they were apparently in love before they got married. But then they ended up hating each other and got a divorce. And he asked me if I wanted to talk about it and I said no. That's it," Reed finished. Glad that he got the story out and hoped Kurt would side with him. Kurt only sat there, thinking. It made Reed a little uncomfortable.

Finally, he said, "Let me get this straight. Basically, with all seriousness, you're scared of marrying Shane," Reed was about to protest before Kurt gave him a 'Let me finish' look. "I'm not saying this week or next month or this year. In general, you're hesitant to marry Shane. Yes or no?" Kurt deadpanned. Reed hated it when Kurt was blunt.

Reluctantly, he nodded. "Yes."

Kurt's expression and voice softened significantly, "Reed, honey, this is Shane we're talking about. He loves you so much, you know that."

Reed was fumbling with his chopsticks, trying to separate them. "That's why it scares me! You know how I am with these things. I know, it's been a couple years since we gotten together; but it still scares me sometimes. I've only been with Shane. He's literally been my first everything, and the fact that I love him so much scares me." Reed poured out, snapping the chopsticks in apart; getting a small splinter in the process. "And now I have a splinter," Reed pushed the take-out container away in frustration.

"Hey, come here," Kurt motioned, placing his and Reed's food on the coffee table adjacent the couch. Reed inched closer and stretched out his hand for Kurt to examine. "I'm going to be honest with you, because you're my best friend," he said as he looked closely at Reed's hand for the splinter. "You and Shane are the most adorable, wonderful couple I know; after Blaine and I, of course. And at the end of the day, what you really need to do is talk to him." He quickly pulled the splinter out and patted Reed's palm.

After finally eating, both boys were back to their old places on the couch. Both were hugging their knees to their chests.

"He really asked you to marry him, huh?" Kurt asked, mostly to himself than Reed.

"Uh-huh," Reed answered expressionless, pulling at a loose thread on his jeans.

"Do you think he has a ring and everything?" Kurt's voice went higher due to his excitement.

Reed shook his head, thinking as he spoke. "I don't think so. Thinking back on last night, he didn't exactly ask me to marry him. He sort of…asked what I thought about it. Shane's spontaneous, but he wouldn't propose in bed. Knowing him he'd have this big plan and everything," Reed mused with a smile tugging on his lips. "But when I think about it, maybe it would be nice to marry Shane, you know? We could move out of the city or something. And then, I don't know," Reed blushed a deep red. "Have kids or something," he smiled.

A knowing smile grew on Kurt's features. "And what would your kids be like?" he asked, half nonchalant, half giddy.

What made Kurt even more excited was that Reed didn't even have to stop to think about what he was going to say next. "I don't know, really. Because I don't think I would mind however they turned out to be, so long as Shane and I raised them right. And I sort of always thought I'd end up with two kids, just because. And they'd have curly hair. And Shane would introduce them to dance and have them stand on his feet while waltzing with them or something. And I could introduce them to painting and they'd try to out-paint each other by trying to paint better portraits of who ever.

"But then again, if neither of them are into either of those things, they could do whatever hobby they like as long as it makes them happy. Thinking about it, we might have to move and find an actual house though. Because it could get sort of crowded in an apartment, and I'm pretty sure it would be more fun for the kids if we had a yard, don't you think?" Reed finally looked up at Kurt, his cheeks turning slightly pink.

"I think you should definitely talk to Shane about this whole thing," Kurt stretched out his legs and poked Reed's leg with his toe.

"You don't think he'd…?" Reed trailed off, unsure of how Shane would actually react.

"If anything, Shane will understand and hold you tight and you'll probably fall asleep with your legs tangled and you'll wake up and Shane will smile and pull you closer to him as he waits for you to wake up," Kurt said as if it was obvious.

"How…How'd you…How do you know that?" Reed's cheeks were slowly starting to rival the colour of his hair.

"You two never changed, do you know that? After all, it was _me_ that had to always move to Blaine's room at Dalton during the night while you and Shane got friendly."

"Oh," Reed said, his cheeks still flushed.

"Of course, thinking back on it, Blaine and I were getting cozy with each other, too," Kurt teased.

"Kurt!" Reed slapped his friend's arm.

Kurt pulled Reed into a short hug. "Go along home and call Shane, okay?" he felt Reed nod against his shoulder.

Before Reed was about to close the door behind him, Kurt called out. "Oh, and Reed?"

"Mhmm?" he turned around, looking to see if Kurt called him because he had forgotten something.

"I'm sure it would be great for your future kids if you and Shane moved somewhere with a yard," he winked.

Reed just rolled his eyes and waved at his fashionable, yet often-crazy best friend. Little did Kurt know, as Reed walked down the hall to the elevator he was biting back a smile.

And his blush had yet to fade.

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><p><strong>Voila! I was thinking, and I'm probably going to wrap up this story in the next 2-4 chapters. I know how it'll end, but I just to to figure out how to get to that said ending, you know? <strong>

**But anyways, thanks for reading. Reviews help fuel the ranebow! :D**


	4. Confrontations

**A/N: I really can't apologize enough for how long it's been for an update. This chapter has actually been done for a while now, I just never really had the time to edit and upload it. I hope it won't take me this long to post the fifth chapter. I think the story's going to wrap up in a couple chapters, so we'll see. **

**Again, I'm sorry for the wait. So without further ado, here's chapter four :)**

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><p>By the time Shane arrived home, it was nearing 6 o'clock. Instead of going home after coffee with Blaine, he'd decided to go to dance rehearsal with the rest of the off-Broadway company. They were surprised to see him, because he normally spent Saturdays with Reed, but shrugged it off.<p>

Before entering the elevator, he noticed that he had two missed calls from Reed but no messages or voicemails. _Odd,_ Shane thought. Getting off on their floor, he stepped through the apartment door and shut it softly behind him.

"Reed?" he called out, but wasn't too loud in case the boy was sleeping. He came up to the bedroom door and slowly creaked it open. He found that Reed wasn't asleep, but instead was in bed with his sketchbook; he didn't even glance up when Shane walked in and sat next to him.

"Hi," Shane nudged him gently.

Reed waited a moment, before acknowledging him. "Hi," he kept his gaze averted at the paper, erasing and tracing out various lines. This made Shane feel uncomfortable, and he squirmed a bit.

"Look, I really think we should–" Shane started, but got cut off.

"We shouldn't," Reed said, still not paying attention.

"Reed, we can't just pretend–"

"We're not pretending anything."

"Just listen to me for one minute," Shane tried to reason.

"I highly doubt that whatever you're going to say will be worth while," Reed shrugged, still drawing.

"You don't even know what I'm going to say."

"It doesn't take a genius, Shane."

"Just stop sketching for a second,"

"I have to finish these by Monday," Reed said over Shane's voice.

"You have time."

"I also have a lot of sketches."

"Stop being so difficult."

"I don't think I'm the only one being difficult, here."

"Can we please just talk about this?"

"We seriously have nothing to talk about."

"Reed, _please_."

"I don't understand why you're making such a big deal out of this!" Reed said as he angrily moved his pencil over the same line repeatedly, making it thicker and darker almost going through the paper.

Shane stayed silent, his lips pulled into a straight line. Reed stopped drawing. Both of them were facing forward.

"Because I want to tell you that I'm sorry," Shane finally let out.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Reed said softly.

"Don't start with that," Shane shook his head.

"With what?"

"Don't try to act like we're fine and peachy. Because you and I both know what I said last night hit home for you and you got upset. And I want to apologize but you won't seem to let me. So please, just let me talk, okay?" Shane said almost in one breath, and turned his head to peek at Reed.

Biting his lip, Reed sighed. "Go on."

"First of all, I'm sorry I didn't realize how affected you were by your parents' divorce. Second of all, I'm sorry I was acting so crazy last night," Reed was about to protest but Shane shook his head. "Let me finish; I think I just got excited with the law being passed, and us being together and everything. Foot in mouth syndrome, I'm telling you. Remember way back when I said I was looking for a cure? I still am," he tried to joke. Reed smiled slightly, but it was very faint. "I wasn't thinking, and I was being inconsiderate and stupid and I'm sorry. I really am."

Reed sat there for a few minutes, biting the insides of his cheeks. "You weren't being inconsiderate and stupid," he mumbled.

"I was, and I'm really–" Shane tried to reason.

"Shane. Stop. You weren't being inconsiderate. You weren't being stupid,"

"…Oh; all right, then. Can I ask why?" Shane wondered, a tad confused.

There was a minute of silence before Reed spoke, but to Shane it felt like hours. "I talked to Kurt today. And I realized that I don't have any problems with the idea of marrying you. It'd be kind of nice, actually. Last night…you just caught me off guard, that's all. And I'm sorry I reacted so badly," Reed looked at Shane hopefully. "Sometimes I'm just scared," he added in a hushed tone.

"Scared?" Shane asked softly. "Why?"

"I don't know. I guess because you're just so graceful and I'm so gawky. You're sure of yourself and I always have to second-guess myself. You're so…handsome and I still look like a kid."

Shane blinked twice, unable to string together a sentence that wouldn't sound as if he were some creepy admirer. "You want to know something?"

"What?" Reed snapped up, wondering why Shane was being so random.

"I met this guy a couple years ago. He wasn't the tallest one of the bunch. He wasn't the most coordinated. He could barely walk into a room without falling over. He wasn't the most outgoing. He sort of reminded me of a cherub. He was so shy sometimes. People told me we'd never be good together," Shane listed off things. Reed looked like he was about to cry. "But you know what? I fell in love with him. And for some reason, something possessed the guy to love me back," he chuckled.

A smiled tugged on Reed's lips. "And?" he asked, his voice still cracking slightly.

"I keep on falling in love with him over and over again every day," Shane shrugged as if it were no big deal.

Shane kissed the top of Reed's forehead. "Start over?"

"That would be nice, yeah." Reed nodded. Shane grinned and tackled Reed into his arms, fumbling onto the bed. Reed's arms were wrapped loosely around Shane's neck, their foreheads pressed together. "I love you," he whispered.

Shane whispered back, not wanting to ruin the moment. "I love you, too."

"I talked to Kurt about things today. About…us," Reed mentioned, hoping Shane wouldn't be upset with him.

Luckily, he wasn't. "And how did that go?" he asked, reaching to take Reed's hand in his.

"I sort of…got carried away, I guess." Shane only gave him a look motioning to go on. "I, uh, I told him how it would be nice to…to sort of have children someday. And we could move somewhere out of city. And then you know…

we could raise them right. And…we could be a family." He smiled, hoping he wasn't being too forward. He rolled them over so that they lay side by side and curled into Shane.

"I think that's a pretty good idea," Shane nodded. "For the future," He added quickly.

Reed sighed happily. "Why are we so in love with fantasy? We're not kids anymore."

"I don't think we in love with fantasy, per se," Shane kissed Reed lazily. "We're just in love."


End file.
